Persepolis Veil

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Women are constantly being judged by what they wear. Iran got around this after the Islamic Revolution by forcing all women to wear a veil. But the thing is telling women what to wear is the first step to limits their rights, making veils a uniform of oppression.

The veil is one of the most significant symbols in understanding Persepolis. In fact, this article of clothing is introduced in the very first panel, a 10-year-old Marjane looking confused about this new addition to her wardrobe. ‘The Veil’ is also the title of the first chapter, as well as a chapter in the second book, a repetition that underscores its importance to the story.

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The veil is a powerful, recurring symbol used in Persepolis to illustrate: …show more content…

Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that the veil would protect women and bridge the gap between men and women. However, it is shown throughout Persepolis that the veil only reinforced the regime’s patriarchal control.

In the very beginning of Persepolis, the girls were veiled and all schools were segregated by gender. This taught the children from a very young age the physical and social differences between men and women in Fundamentalist Iran.

Many men who support the regime take it upon themselves to police what women’s clothing. Marji’s mom encounters first-hand the consequences of this as she is assaulted for not wearing a veil. Instead of punishing these men, Iran’s decision is to repress women, and make them all veil their bodies so that they don’t tempt the men to behave decadently.

In Persepolis 2, an older Marjane is once again met with chauvinism, but this time she speaks up against in. She condemns the patriarchal nature of the lecture at her art school in which the female students are told to wear longer scarves so that they don’t distracted the male students, yet their male counterparts remain free to wear tight shirts. This outburst captures how Iranian laws see women as second-class citizens who should be submissive and feel nothing… basically be

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